Greetings:
Yesterday Fred Boesche and I birded up north, starting in the area of Lummi
Flats at sunrise doing some exploring. It was a bit too cold and windy to
see much, though we had a Peregrine, and about 6 Slate-colored Juncos.
Everything was completely frozen and ice-encrusted and the temperature had
to have been in the teens. To escape the wind we went up to Birch Bay and
Drayton Harbor for a while. There we found that even small portions of the
saltwater had frozen, amazingly. We had all the regular waterfowl, including
some Eared Grebes and many Long-tailed Ducks and Black Scoters.

A bit after noon we abandoned those northern climes and headed to the
Samish. Three Short-eared Owls were hunting at the West 90 and we also had
Merlin and American Kestrel in the area (no Gyr). At least a dozen
Rough-legged Hawks in the area. A single flock of wigeon included around 25
Eurasian.

It was getting late, so we headed down to Fir Island. Along Polson Rd were
three flocks of Snow Geese, each containing 5,000 to 10,000 birds. There
were also at least a thousand swans in the area. I was unable to pick out a
Bewick's in the fading light. Other birds in the field with the swans were a
Greater White-fronted Goose and a surprising flock of 300 American Pipits.
We then drove to Wylie Rd where I was lucky enough to pick out the female
Rusty Blackbird first reported by Ryan Merrill. I had three brief views of
it before the whole flock took off to the east. We ended the day nicely with
a quick walk on the dike at the Skagit Game Range. As it got very dark, we
were watching a little flock of Bushtits trying to find a spot to roost.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Northern Saw-whet Owl flew in and pegged one of
the Bushtits just a few feet away. We were able to watch the bird eating for
5 or 10 minutes before we headed home with 106 species for the day.

Cheers and good birding,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington